Related field history You chose the registered nurse record. Each milestone below describes that field. A link to your specific role or workplace needs its own source.
Decisions behind this path Anna B. Coles, Howard’s trustees and Congress
September 21, 1961
Pay protection during the hospital transfer
Who U.S. Congress
What changedThe transfer law required Howard to preserve pay for eligible Freedmen’s Hospital staff who transferred. Howard took control on July 1, 1967.
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Black nurses built training schools, cared for communities, won professional recognition and challenged unequal treatment at work. These records name the people, institutions and decisions behind those changes—and distinguish education from hiring, promotion and equal working conditions.
Field records. A connection to your workplace needs its own evidence.
Scope & research limits
Thirteen selected episodes across hospital training, community care, university leadership, military nursing and employment rights. Named workplaces include Provident in Chicago, Florida A&M, NYU, Freedmen’s/Howard, Dixie Hospital and Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center. These are distinct histories, not a proven chain to every nursing job.
Chicago nursing schools denied Reynolds admission because she was Black.
Who made the decision
Williams and Provident’s organizers established a hospital and nurse training school in Chicago
What changed
After efforts to win her admission elsewhere failed, the organizers founded Provident Hospital and its training school in 1891.
Where the evidence stops
This is Chicago’s Provident, not another hospital with the same name. It closed in 1987 and reopened under Cook County in 1993; a current job needs its own appointment record.
Black residents faced obstacles to hospital care and tuberculosis treatment; nursing work also faced racial restrictions.
Who made the decision
New York’s Charity Organization Society employed Scales for community nursing
What changed
Scales began district nursing in 1900. The work connected home visits and practical health education with treatment for tuberculosis.
Where the evidence stops
This was work for a private social-service organization in New York City. It is not proof of a city-government appointment, a modern RN license or a current home-care agency’s hiring route.
Supports Identifies her private employer and reports connecting home conditions and employment discrimination to health.
Where to look “Black public health nurses: skills & impact,” final paragraph on Scales and the Charity Organization Society; indexed page text
190804
Martha Minerva Franklin turns exclusion into collective organizing
Martha Minerva Franklin and the founding nurses of NACGN
The new association set goals for professional standards, leadership and ending discrimination. Its surviving records describe later campaigns for jobs and military service.
Black nurses faced discrimination in professional opportunities and needed an organization able to act on their conditions.
Who made the decision
Nurses meeting in New York formed the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and elected Franklin president
What changed
Franklin gathered information from Black nurses and called the founding meeting, sponsored by the Lincoln School for Nurses Alumnae Association.
Where the evidence stops
Organizing created a vehicle for change; founding an association did not itself change a hospital’s hiring policy. The catalog description was reviewed, not the underlying meeting minutes.
Qualified Black nurses faced racial restrictions on military nursing service during World War II.
Who made the decision
Army and Navy nursing authorities; Staupers and NACGN advocated for the change
What changed
Staupers organized a letter-writing campaign, met Eleanor Roosevelt and pressed officials to use Black nurses’ skills.
Where the evidence stops
This institutional history describes an admission change; it does not establish equal assignments, promotion or the service record of an individual nurse.
Supports Staupers’ organizing, contact with Eleanor Roosevelt and the account’s 1945 military admission change.
Where to look Opening biography and section 3, Eleanor Roosevelt’s Apartment
1945–195306
Mary Elizabeth Carnegie strengthens nursing education at Florida A&M
Mary Elizabeth Carnegie and Florida A&M’s nursing faculty and students
Nursing became a college division responsible for its curriculum and clinical arrangements, separating educational oversight from hospital service needs.
Nursing education operated within the hospital’s administration, limiting faculty control over students’ preparation.
Who made the decision
Carnegie led the program; college administrators authorized its separate educational responsibilities and budget
What changed
As dean, Carnegie reorganized faculty, secured a separate budget and strengthened clinical instruction. She also shortened students’ duty hours and improved textbooks and records.
Where the evidence stops
These are documented educational and administrative changes during her 1945–1953 tenure. They do not establish each graduate’s license, later employer or measured patient outcomes.
NYU describes eight years of teaching and mentoring Black students and nurses—a specific appointment and sustained work, not only an honorary recognition.
Advanced nursing education and faculty positions were separate barriers for Black nurses.
Who made the decision
New York University appointed Osborne; the reviewed accounts do not identify the appointing official
What changed
After earning a nursing master’s at Teachers College in 1931, Osborne became NYU’s first Black nursing faculty member, according to NYU’s institutional account.
Where the evidence stops
NYU’s account dates her arrival to 1946; NYPL’s finding aid says 1947. An appointment record is still needed to resolve that difference. This faculty role does not establish employment at an NYU hospital.
Transferring a federal hospital to a university put employees’ jobs, pay and benefits under a new employer.
Who made the decision
U.S. Congress, with transfer terms to be agreed by the HEW secretary and Howard’s trustees
What changed
Public Law 87-262 required transfer opportunities for eligible staff and prohibited salary reductions for covered employees who transferred.
Where the evidence stops
The protections applied to defined employee categories, not every applicant or later hire; this statute alone does not verify an individual worker’s transfer or payroll.
Freedmen’s hospital-based diploma training and a university bachelor’s program were different educational routes.
Who made the decision
Howard University Board of Trustees approved the program; Coles led the school
What changed
The trustees approved a baccalaureate nursing program on April 23, 1968; instruction began in 1969 under the new school’s leadership.
Where the evidence stops
This establishes Howard’s education pathway; graduation alone does not establish licensure or an appointment at Howard University Hospital or another employer.
Supports Instruction beginning in 1969, the first cohort’s 1973 graduation and an excerpt of Coles’ 1969 account.
Where to look September 16, 2019; paragraph beginning “The Bachelor of Science in Nursing program”; reproduced Coles account below
1971–197212
Black nurses build a national voice from local workplaces
Lauranne Sams, Betty Smith Williams, Jessie Cunningham and Dorothy Williams
Kaiser’s history records Cunningham’s OB-GYN work and supervisory appointment at Oakland Medical Center in the 1960s. Cunningham and Williams also organized community health screenings through their local Black nurses’ association.
A nursing credential did not by itself secure professional influence or advancement.
Who made the decision
Black nurse organizers founded NBNA and adopted its constitution and bylaws
What changed
Sams and fellow nurses formed the National Black Nurses Association in Cleveland in 1971; its 1972 meeting established the organization’s governing structure.
Where the evidence stops
The records connect named nurses to Oakland and professional organizing. They do not identify who approved Cunningham’s promotion or prove a hiring pathway across every Kaiser facility.
Supports Cunningham’s Oakland nursing and supervision; Cunningham and Williams’ local organizing.
Where to look May 1, 2014; “A model student and mentor” and “Making connections with Black colleagues”
1979–198313
Hazel Johnson-Brown leads the Army Nurse Corps
Hazel W. Johnson-Brown
She became the U.S. military’s first Black woman general officer. During her tenure, Army nursing practice standards were published as an official Department of the Army pamphlet.
Johnson-Brown’s path began with rejection from a nursing school because she was Black; senior military leadership presented another level of access.
Who made the decision
U.S. Army leadership appointed Johnson-Brown chief of the Army Nurse Corps
What changed
A Harlem Hospital School of Nursing graduate, she entered the Army in 1955 and became its nurse corps chief on September 1, 1979.
Where the evidence stops
The appointment and practice standards establish institutional leadership, not equal promotion outcomes for every Black nurse or a reader’s commission at a particular Army hospital.
Supports The discrimination she encountered before training and her later Army leadership.
Where to look Biography; West Chester rejection, Harlem training and 1979 appointment paragraphs
PLACE BY PLACE
At specific workplaces
These records name an institution, school or employer. Open one to see what connects, what changed and what still needs evidence.
Howard University HospitalWashington, DC · Howard University
1941
Freedmen’s opens classrooms and housing for nursing students
Freedmen’s Hospital, the predecessor of Howard University Hospital, ran its own school of nursing. In 1941 it opened a building on Howard’s campus where nursing students lived and attended classes.
Where the connection stops This record names the workplace. It does not establish your own training, appointment or hiring route, or prove that every worker benefited.
Howard University Hospital replaces Freedmen’s Hospital
Howard University Hospital opened as the successor to Freedmen’s Hospital. This is the documented institutional link between the earlier teaching hospital and the workplace you entered.
Where the connection stops Howard’s hospital history dates the opening of the successor hospital. Its medical school history separately describes training facilities for nurses at Freedmen’s.
Three nurses win a ruling against discriminatory dismissal
They challenged their dismissal; the appeals court rejected the hospital’s defense and reversed the lower court. The court directed reinstatement offers and recognized entitlement to back pay, reduced by interim earnings. The opinion establishes ordered relief at this hospital, not evidence that every remedy was carried out or that all nursing workplaces changed.
Where the connection stops The opinion establishes ordered relief at this hospital, not evidence that every remedy was carried out or that all nursing workplaces changed. This names the historical hospital; a connection to a renamed or successor employer needs a separate record.
Emma Reynolds trained at the hospital founded after her exclusion from other nursing schools. Cook County’s timeline links that institution to its 1993 reopening.
Where the connection stops The hospital closed in 1987. County ownership and reopening do not establish continuous staffing or any current nurse’s hiring route.
Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical CenterOakland, CA · Kaiser Permanente
1960s · Nursing supervision
Jessie Cunningham advances into nursing supervision at Oakland
Jessie Cunningham worked in OB-GYN and became a nursing supervisor at Oakland Medical Center in the 1960s.
Where the connection stops This employer history identifies Oakland. It does not establish who approved her promotion or a route into another Kaiser facility.
Estelle Massey Osborne joined NYU’s nursing faculty. NYU dates her appointment to 1946; the NYPL finding aid gives 1947.
Where the connection stops The year remains disputed. This is academic employment, not a record of nursing employment at NYU Langone or another hospital.
Mahoney graduated from the nursing school at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. The American Nurses Association recognizes her as the first Black graduate nurse in the United States.
Thirty years later, she welcomed nurses to the first conference of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses.
Tuskegee trained Black nurses through a hospital school. In Jacksonville a Methodist church mission also founded a nursing school for Black women. The Jacksonville example documents church sponsorship, but it does not establish a nationwide Black-church origin.
Students may qualify through bachelor’s, associate degree or diploma programs. State nursing regulators license graduates who meet their requirements and pass the examination. An account limited to university degrees would miss other qualifying routes.
These figures describe the published registered nurse occupation. A separate measure would be needed for your specific job title.
Employed workforce
Black maleBlack female
Coverage 2010–2024. Dots mark reported years. Gaps stay open.
2010–2024 definition. Registered nurses; excludes advanced practice nursing occupations. Black or African American alone (RAC1P=2), any Hispanic origin or birthplace. Denominator: all U.S. civilian employed people age 16+ in this occupation (ESR=1 or 2; 50 states and DC). Weighted by ACS person weight PWGTP. OCCP: 3255.
Registered nurses; excludes advanced practice nursing occupations. Black or African American alone (RAC1P=2), any Hispanic origin or birthplace. Denominator: all U.S. civilian employed people age 16+ in this occupation (ESR=1 or 2; 50 states and DC). Weighted by ACS person weight PWGTP. OCCP: 3255.
Coverage 1990–1990. Dots mark reported years. Gaps stay open.
1990 definition. Registered nurses. People age 16+ in the U.S. civilian labor force classified in the named occupation, including experienced unemployed. Black, single reported race, any Hispanic origin or birthplace. Share of all people in those rows, male and female combined. Published decennial sample estimates.
Registered nurses. People age 16+ in the U.S. civilian labor force classified in the named occupation, including experienced unemployed. Black, single reported race, any Hispanic origin or birthplace. Share of all people in those rows, male and female combined. Published decennial sample estimates.
Coverage 2006–2009. Dots mark reported years. Gaps stay open.
2006–2009 definition. Registered nurses under the pre-2010 occupation coding. Black or African American alone (RAC1P=2), any Hispanic origin or birthplace. Denominator: all U.S. civilian employed people age 16+ in this occupation (ESR=1 or 2; 50 states and DC). Weighted by ACS person weight PWGTP. OCCP: 3130.
Registered nurses under the pre-2010 occupation coding. Black or African American alone (RAC1P=2), any Hispanic origin or birthplace. Denominator: all U.S. civilian employed people age 16+ in this occupation (ESR=1 or 2; 50 states and DC). Weighted by ACS person weight PWGTP. OCCP: 3130.
Door Notes